Various kinds of sorting apparatuses configured to sort money such as banknotes have been conventionally known. For example, JP2005-165806A discloses a sorting apparatus including one inlet and a plurality of (e.g., three) outlets, wherein banknotes, which have been taken into an apparatus body from the inlet, are transported, one by one, by a transport unit and recognized by a recognition unit, so that the banknotes are sorted by denomination and delivered to the respective outlets.
As a conventional sorting apparatus, there has been known a sorting apparatus which is of a type for assigning denominations of money to respective outlets. In such a sorting apparatus, it is judged whether a denomination of money having been recognized by a recognition unit is assigned to any of the outlets. When the denomination is assigned, the money is transported to the assigned outlet. On the other hand, when the denomination of the money having been recognized by the recognition unit is not assigned to any of the outlet, if there is an outlet to which no denomination is assigned, the denomination of the money having been recognized by the recognition unit is assigned to the outlet and the money is transported to the assigned outlet. Alternatively, when the outlet to which the denomination of the money having been recognized by the recognition unit is assigned is full, if there is another outlet to which no denomination is assigned, the denomination of the money having been recognized by the recognition unit is assigned to the latter outlet as well, and the money is transported to the assigned latter outlet. Alternatively, when the denomination of the money having been recognized by the recognition unit is not assigned to any of the outlets, if there is no outlet to which no denomination is assigned, the money is transported to a reject unit. When an outlet is filled with money, an operator takes the money out of the outlet, and assignment of denomination to the outlet is reset. According to such a sorting apparatus, in particular, when denominations of money are non-uniform, that is, when an amount of money of a specific denomination is sufficiently larger than an amount of money of another denomination, an operation for sorting the money by denomination can be performed promptly.